Keith Olbermann hosts new sports talk show for ESPN2

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — “Is everybody’s incarceration going well here?” Keith Olbermann asked assembled writers and journalists on the first day of the two-and-a-half-week summer meeting of the Television Critics Association. “Tip your waitresses? Enjoy the veal? Rather than make an introductory statement, then, let’s get started.”

The (allegedly) reformed bad boy of MSNBC and Current TV has landed a new late-night gig, the eponymous talk show Olbermann, on ESPN’s subsidiary channel ESPN2, beginning Aug. 26. Olbermann will follow ESPN’s nightly sports recap program SportsCenter.

Olbermann is determined to get back to his sports roots and avoid the slash-and-burn political commentaries that provided endless fuel for debate on Twitter and other places, all the while burning bridges behind him.

His return to the sports channel he once called home, follows acrimonious splits from first MSNBC, where he worked from 2003-2011, and more recently Current TV.

Olbermann made his name as a colourful, if occasionally contentious, sports broadcaster as co-host of ESPN’s nightly recap program SportsCenter, from 1992-97.

“Napoleon, I think, got back to France quicker than I got back to ESPN,” he said. “I had a lot of fun doing SportsCenter two decades and one century ago.”

Olbermann, nattily attired in a buttoned, tailored grey suit and striped blue tie, held his audience spellbound as he riffed on pro sports, the Internet, his prowess in a fantasy baseball league, ESPN now vs. ESPN then, and the changing attitude of the TV audience in recent years.

Asked if ESPN has banned him from talking about politics, Olbermann leaned back in his chair and then weighed in.

“It’s not my intent to say, ‘The White Sox moved to Vancouver today but, first, let’s talk about what Speaker Boehner said,’” Olbermann replied. “No offence to him or anybody else, but I hope not to mention his name at all during the show.”

It’s been “wonderful” not talking about politics, Olbermann added.

“I did it for 10 years … and if there’s anything you’d like to do after that kind of experience, it’s a sportscast.”

Despite what appeared to be an acrimonious split at the time, Obermann looked back on his ESPN days with fondness.

“I used to enjoy the heck out of just reading the highlights and saying stupid things.”

His long-running segment ‘The Worst Person in the Sports World’ will return, he vowed.

“Even if they were not into the political thing, people liked my willingness to stick my neck out.”

Olbermann will be a sportscast first and foremost, “with my stamp on it, and my name.”

The nightly, hour-long program will focus on the day’s relevant sports events and will feature a mix of commentary, athlete interviews, game highlights, sports analysis and panel discussions.

The sports world has changed, obviously, and the nature of sportscasting has changed with it, Olbermann admitted.

“This new Internet thing that you have is ruining our ability to just throw scores out there and say, ‘Look at these highlights. You don’t know how that Toronto-Cleveland game turned out? Well, we’re the ones who can tell you.’ Practically speaking, that’s one big difference right there.”

Olbermann would no fun if it were simply three hours of him talking. Similarly, It would be no fun if it were three hours of somebody else talking while Olbermann pretended to listen.

“If you’re going to try and predict my career, good luck.”

Faced with a question from a reporter “on your extreme left” — a line that elicited a laugh from the room — Olbermann said he was happy to be back at ESPN.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge I was [at ESPN] before,” Olbermann said. “Partly to acknowledge how godawful I was back then.”

But seriously.

“I am being serious, sir,” Olbermann said, deadpan.

Asked what makes Olbermann different from any other sports program, Olbermann replied, “Conveniently, they were looking to do a show called Olbermann and I was the only person they found in the business with the name Olbermann. So it worked out pretty nicely for me.”

Olbermann insisted he’s changed.

“I’m going to listen more carefully to other people’s ideas,” he said, uncommonly contrite all of a sudden. “I’m 54-years-old now. If I haven’t figured out what parts of it were my fault, well … A good craftsman never blames his tools.”

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